The last goodbye
by ncis-lady
Summary: "And just when he had felled the last orc, the screaming and yelling stopped. He strained his ears, but all he could hear was a shuffling noise, like that of a body being dragged across the stone." My two missing minutes of the BOFA movie. (Unoriginal title, uninformative summary - but seriously, I don't want to spoil anything.) Major spoilers for the BOFA movie inside! One-shot.


MAJOR SPOILERS for the BOFA movie!

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My missing two minutes of the BoFA movie. (Well, there are more things missing, but this was by far the most important one.) I just can't believe PJ let it end like this, and if it had to end this way, couldn't he have given them just a bit more time? I'm pretty sure there are similar versions out there, but honestly, I've been avoiding the site for the last days for fear of spoilers. Now I had to get this out of my head, so here you go.

**The last goodbye**

Kíli heard the shouting from somewhere above his head, and in a moment of clarity he realised that he and his brother had been trapped. Trapped by Azog to get at Thorin, he understood now. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he heard the white orc's howling, and then it mingled with a sound that drove all air out of his lungs and left him choking with fear.

A scream reverberated through the stone, a scream with a voice that he knew and that which tore at his very heart.

_Fíli._

Somewhere out of his sight, his brother was being hurt, and Kíli drove his sword into the nearest orc with despair, knowing he couldn't reach him in that moment. Frantically he slashed his weapon at every enemy approaching him, all the while hearing the echoes of the yells and howls above him in his ears, forming a horrible background to his own fighting.

And just when he had felled the last orc, the screaming and yelling stopped. He strained his ears, but all he could hear was a shuffling noise, like that of a body being dragged across the stone.

_A body._

_Fíli._

Kíli looked up from where he was standing, and there, in the distance, he could make out two figures. They were but shadows, their shapes blurred, though he would recognise them anywhere. Thorin and Dwalin were there, watching what was unfolding before their eyes.

More shuffling, groaning, and then Azog's terrible voice pierced the air like a blade went through skin. He growled in Black Speech, and the undecipherable words sent shivers down the young dwarf's spine. There was only one word he knew.

Mat.

_Die._

Kíli pressed his eyes closed for a moment, trying in vain to shut out everything around him. But then he heard another voice, and nothing else mattered, not Azog, not Thorin, not the mountain or the battle itself.

"Thorin... Thorin, run!"

Only his brother mattered.

He could feel his stomach knotting itself, his vision went white as Fíli's choked gasps reached his ears. He had to do something, _anything_, but he was unable to move, his feet like lead keeping him in place.

Then there was silence. It was a horrifying silence, the kind of which always seemed to cover the lands before something terrible would come to pass. It seemed to last ages to Kíli. Deep down, in that moment, he knew. He knew it by the memories that suddenly flooded his mind, memories so beautiful and clear that they were like a blooming flower in that place of horror and cold. Memories of Ered Luin, of two dwarflings discovering the wilderness, of friends and family and a mother's love. Everything flashed before his eyes before the silence was broken by a sickening sound as a body hit the ground just inches from Kíli's feet.

He stared at it, unwilling to believe what had happened; his whole body was shaking as Azog's maniacal laughter filled the air.

"No! No, no, no... no!"

Desperately he muttered these words as he forgot everything around him, forgot that he mustn't give up cover, that he was revealing himself to his enemy, none of it mattered when he crashed to his knees beside the still form of his brother.

"No, Fíli!" He grabbed his shoulders, shaking him as sobs built up in his chest. "No, Fíli, please, talk to me!"

Almost unnoticeably, Fíli's chest rose, and his blue eyes found Kíli's dark ones. The blonde dwarf took a shuddering breath, never losing his eye contact with his brother, and Kíli was grateful for it, for it kept him from staring at the thin bead of blood running from the corner of Fíli's mouth, slowly finding its way down his chin, for a moment getting stuck in his moustache before the first drops hit the icy ground and froze immediately.

"Kíli... Kee..."

Fíli's shivering hand found his own, and Kíli pressed it tightly, as if he could thus keep his brother in the world which, deep down, he knew he was leaving.

"Look at me. Look at me, Fíli."

"Tell Thorin..."

But the rest of the sentence was drowned out when the young warrior gasped in pain, almost breaking Kíli's fingers as he crushed them beneath his own when agony threatened to overtake him. Kíli stared, wide-eyed, at the one who had been at his side through all his life.

_Not like this. No, no, no, not like this._

He was pleading with some unknown force, stubbornly trying to deny the inevitable, just as he had done as a child. He had always been like that when he had been young, and at that time he had wished for nothing more than to be old enough to discover the world. He had been eager to prove himself, they both had, eager to conquer the world and bathe in its wonders.

Now, with his brother's battered body before him and the shadows of evil surrounding them, he wished he could go back and be that child again.

_You know nothing of this world!_

But they knew now, they knew more than they had ever wanted to know. The world out there beyond the safety of home was perilous and cold. A place in which the good too often died, while the bad lingered in the shadows and prospered there.

Fíli's gasps had subsided, and he lay ghostly still, his wide eyes once more searching his brother's and finding them.

"Save yourself."

"No, no," Kíli shook his head vehemently, wiping his eyes furiously with his free hand. The tears stung in his eyes, freezing on his skin before they could drop. "I'm not leaving you, I won't."

"Kee." The single word came as a drenched gasp, and Fíli's face screwed up with pain. "I'm proud of us. Of you."

Kíli sobbed loudly, not caring if Azog was already looming behind him, not caring about the distant shouts that had to come from Thorin. He didn't care.

It didn't matter here.

With shaking shoulders he bent over until his forehead touched his brother's.

"Don't leave me. Please, Fíli... my brother... don't leave me."

"Kíli..."

And as the light faded from the blue eyes like the setting sun on Durin's Day, and tiny snowflakes settled on his body, Kíli knew that his brother had gone. Despair clawed at his heart, despair of a kind he had never known before. A cry ripped from his throat and unrivalled fury stirred in his chest as he rose to his feet after one last look at the one he had always held most dear in this world.

They wouldn't meet again in this world, he realised. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he knew with unwavering certainty that soon they would embrace each other in the Halls of Mandos.

It should scare him.

But to Kíli, it was a comforting thought as he turned his gaze from Fíli and prepared himself for the final battle. He would avenge his brother, no matter what the cost.

They would find each other again.

_I saw the light fade from the sky  
>On the wind I heard a sigh<br>As the snowflakes cover my fallen brothers  
>I will say this last goodbye<em>

(Billy Boyd, "The last goodbye")

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><p>AN 1: This is one of the shortest one-shots I've ever written, but close to the end I was sobbing like a baby – shouldn't have listened to "The last goodbye" while writing Fíli's last words, I guess – so that's got to make up for it.

A/N 2: I will not start a rant here about everything that felt wrong with the movie. I just know that this fic here will most probably remain my only one that is entirely movie-based. From now on, I'll write AUs or refer to the book. PJ's version of Kíli's and Fíli's deaths is definitely not my version. That having said, I am hoping that we will find a Fíli vs. Azog scene in the EE. I mean, there's no way he would just get himself caught like a rabbit in a snare?!

A/N 3: Unfortunately I couldn't find Azog's words anywhere, but I looked up the word for "die", so I just assume he used that. Correct me if I'm wrong.


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